Historical Archive

Japan

Brazil and Japan maintain centennial and diversified relations: the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation, through which diplomatic relations were established, completed 120 years in 2015.

The Brazilian community in Japan is the third largest Brazilian community abroad, despite having decreased from its peak of over 300 thousand people in 2007 to just over 173 thousand today. The Japanese-descendant community ("Nikkei") in Brazil, the result of immigration started in 1908, reaches about 1.6 million - the largest Japanese population outside Japan. This human bond is the main asset of relations, enhancing dialogue and cooperation between the two countries.

Through JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), Japan is one of the main partners of Brazil in technical cooperation projects, both in cooperation received by Brazil and in cooperation provided jointly to third countries. One of the most successful initiatives is the ProSavana (Cooperation Programme for the Agricultural Development of Tropical Savannahs in Mozambique), developed together with EMBRAPA. The Japanese-Brazilian digital TV system (ISDB-T) is the result of technology partnership between the two countries. These partnerships are indicative of the capacity for joint realization of Brazil and Japan.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese companies played significant role in the advancement of Brazilian industrialization. New reciprocal impulse of rapprochement occurred in the past decade, after the exchange of high level visits – the visit of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Brazil in 2004, reciprocated by the visit of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Japan in 2005. There is great mutual interest in strengthening economic relations between Brazil and Japan - which are, respectively, the second largest emerging economy and the second largest developed economy in the world.

In 2016, Japan ranked as the third largest trading partner of Brazil in Asia and the seventh in the world.

Japan has the sixth largest stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) in our country, in 2014, of US$ 26,8 billion. The flow of Japanese investments to our country totaled, in 2014, US$ 3,7 billion and, in 2015, US$ 2,8 billion.

Cooperation in science, technology and innovation is priority item on the bilateral agenda, with great potential still to be explored. Among the most promising areas, it can be highlighted information and communications technologies; nanotechnology; aerospace technology; robotics; new materials, among others. Partnerships between EMBRAPA and the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) in biotechnology, and between the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM), the Institute of Oceanography of the University of Sao Paulo and the Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) are successful examples of joint scientific research - which led to the realization, in 2013, of the scientific expedition "Iatá-Piuna" first manned study of the South Atlantic seabed.

In the multilateral sphere, Brazil and Japan are partners in favor of the reform of global governance, acting on G4 - along with Germany and India - in defense of the reform of the United Nations Security Council. Brazil and Japan are the countries that most often occupied a non-permanent seat in the Security Council –ten and eleven biennium respectively.

Chronology of bilateral relations

1895 – Signature of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation

1897 – Opening of respective diplomatic representations

1908 – Beginning of Japanese immigration to Brazil (arrival of ship Kasato Maru)

1928 – Beginning of Japanese immigration in Amazonia

1942 – Disruption of diplomatic relations

1952 – Restoration of diplomatic relations

1958 – Visit of Prince Mikasa and wife (50 years of Japanese immigration)

2010 – Third Meeting of the Joint Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (December)

2010 – Visit to Brasília of the Vice-Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, Osamu Fujimura. Signature of Administrative Adjustment to the Social Security Agreement (December 27)

2011 – Visit, as Special Ambassador, of Lawmaker Taro Aso (Former Prime Minister, Former Foreign Minister and current President of the Japanese section of the Parliamentary Friendship Group Brazil-Japan), on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of President Dilma Rousseff (January 1)

2011 – Establishment of "Brazil Solidarity Movement" for the victims of the natural disasters of 11/03, coordinated by the Embassy in Tokyo and composed by leaders of the Brazilian community and Brazilian companies in Japan (March 26)

2011 – Humanitarian donation by the Brazilian Government of US$ 500 thousand for the victims of the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan (April 4)

2016 – The Ambassador of Brazil to Japan, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, and the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yoji Muto, have signed a Memorandum between Brazil and Japan on the facilitation of the issuance of multiple-entry Visas for holders of regular passports (February 2)